Biko
Steve Bikos tormentors protest their innocence, but if that is true they need not have applied for amnesty, argues Lizeka Mda
Steve Bikos torturers came to the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions amnesty hearing in Port Elizabeth to persuade the gathering they had come to finally tell the true facts about the circumstances in which he died.
But on the very first day of the hearing, Biko family lawyer, George Bizos SC, exposed in his cross-examination a massive contradiction in their latest version of how the Black Consciousness leader sustained a head injury in September 1977.
In his application, retired security police Major Harold Snyman blamed the late Colonel Piet Goosen, his commanding officer in 1977, for the instructions to keep Biko naked, and to deprive him of sleep and food.
After the activist was fatally injured, it was the same Goosen who instructed the investigation team to lie about the circumstances leading to Bikos death in statements to Major General Kleinhaus who investigated Bikos injuries, and to the inquest into his death in November 1977.
Throughout Snymans testimony, his co- applicants Gideon Nieuwoudt, Daantjie Siebert, Johan Beneke and Rubin Marx,who were members of the interrogation team Snyman led did not give any indication that they agreed or disagreed with their former colleagues recall of events.
Snyman said the applicants had manufactured statements in which the true facts of this case were adapted and concealed. But in his rendition to the truth commission, he told how Biko had bumped his head against a wall during a scuffle. Bizos suggested his head had been deliberately rammed against the wall.
Siebert was a study in concentration when Snyman recounted his anger at Bikos stubborn insistence on sitting down while being questioned about a visit to Cape Town despite his banning order, and the distribution of subversive pamphlets in Port Elizabeth.
Beneke appeared to be shrinking in his seat, while Louw Erasmus, his lawyer, just got progressively redder in the face, particularly when he scowled at the jeering crowd.
Nieuwoudt, on the other hand, alternated between staring into space while supporting his chin with his left fist, and looking around the hall as if trying to recognise people his victims perhaps? He drank a lot of water and kept pouring water for Snyman.
Why is he so thirsty? Did he pour even one glass for Biko? the question came from an angry member of the audience. The only indication that Nieuwoudt was paying attention to the proceedings was when Bizos read from Sieberts application that during the alleged scuffle, Nieuwoudt was hitting Biko with a hosepipe, and with Siebert and Marx grabbed Biko and ran with him to the corner where they rammed him against the wall.
Snyman responded that he did not see that. At which point Nieuwoudt whispered to Snyman with his hand covering his mouth.
Twenty years ago Snyman testifed that on September 6 1977 Bikos interrogation in the Sanlam Building began at 10.30am and lasted until 6pm. Snyman said Biko had displayed an aggressive attitude towards the police and to make him feel at ease, his handcuffs were removed and he was offered a chair to sit on.
At first Biko evaded questions but as the day went on during which he had been offered meat pies and milk, which he refused he had become more co-operative. He told the police he had gone to Cape Town to escape his marital problems, but later said he had gone to heal a breach in the Black Peoples Convention.
Sidney Kentridge, counsel for the Biko family, had wanted to know what persuasive methods had been used during the seven-and- a-half hours to transform a hostile Biko to a co-operative witness. To which Snyman said Biko had been confronted with certain evidence in the security police hands.
The following day, Snyman said, shortly after his leg-irons and handcuffs were removed, when offered a chair, Biko had got a wild expression in his eyes, jumped off the chair and threw the chair at Snyman.
Snyman got out of the way, then Biko charged at Beneke, pinning him against the steel cabinet. Snyman and Siebert went to Benekes aid but it took the added muscle of Marx and Nieuwoudt to overpower him.
He was chained to a metal grill but continued to struggle against his handcuffs and leg irons. Snyman reported the matter to Goosen, who went to speak to Biko whom he found to be incoherent and speaking in a slurred manner.
Goosen called Dr Ivor Lang to give Biko a medical check-up, after which Snyman and his team tried to communicate with an uncommunicative Biko. Snyman then gave orders for Biko to be allowed to rest on his mat while still handcuffed and chained to the grill.
On the following day, September 8, Snyman said he had found Biko still lying on the floor, awake, but would not respond to questions. Snyman knew that Dr Lang had found nothing physically wrong with Biko.
He was aware too that Biko was taken to the prison hospital on September 8. Snyman said he was also present when Biko was sent on the journey to Pretoria on September 11 in the company of Siebert and other police officers.
Magistrate Marthinus Prins, presiding at the inquest, ruled that Bikos head injuries emanated from the reported scuffle and his death could not be blamed on criminal offence by anyone. All lies, insisted Snyman this week as he presented what he said were the true facts.
First of all, the scuffle with Biko happened on September 6, right at the beginning of the interrogation which started at 9am. By 9.30am Biko had been injured.
Snyman said Biko became confrontational and aggressive and kept sitting down without permission while Siebert questioned him about the distribution of pamphlets and his association with Dr Neville Alexander of the Non-European Unity Movement. Siebert shouted at Biko to get up, and when his order was ignored, he pulled Biko off the chair by the scruff of his neck, at which point Biko lost his temper. He pushed the chair hard towards Siebert and aimed a punch at the policeman, but missed. Siebert shoved Biko away as Beneke shoulder-charged the activist in the stomach.
We knew of a previous occasion in which Mr Biko had assaulted a member of the police and knocked his teeth out, said Snyman. He was a big and strong man.
Beneke and Siebert could not subdue Biko until Marx and Nieuwoudt came to their aid. There was so much punching it was not possible to see who hit whom, and they fell on top of each other, Snyman said. During the scuffle he bumped his head against the wall and that is how he got injured.
Snyman says he was not involved in any of this, and in fact, after reporting the struggle to Goosen, he had no further dealings with Biko. Goosen said he would take over the entire matter from then onwards.
Snyman heard subsequently of Bikos death in Pretoria. Snyman and his counsel, Kobus Booysen now refer to all evidence from 20 years ago as Goosens statement.
Asked why he had not objected to being part of the fabrication at the time, Snyman said it is clear we were guided by Goosen. Colonel Goosen was a very determined person and once his mind was made up, he could make everyone join him.
Snyman says Goosen concocted the lie to hide the fact that police waited nearly 24 hours before seeking medical treatment for the brain-damaged activist.
Bizos was drawn to comment: Might we infer a tendency on your part to put the blame on the dead Mr Biko, Colonel Goosen and General Hendrik van der Bergh, who is not in the application, but has since the application died, and is mentioned today as having had influence from head office?
Bizos put it to Snyman that the trail of falsehoods had started by the 7th, so that in case Biko lived, he would be branded a liar, as whatever claims he would have made would not coincide with the medical certificate.
From this new version it is not very clear why Snyman is applying for amnesty at all, because if he did not participate in the assault, and had virtually no part in Bikos subsequent inhumane treatment, his appeal at the hearing is baffling:
It is my conviction in the depths of my heart that our actions were wrong, he said. I can say in honesty that I feel remorseful over these events. I want to ask that I be forgiven for my part.
Thats because Snymans telling even more lies, says Bikos widow, Ntsiki. And the audience at the hearing clearly agreed with her as their running commentary indicated. You are lying! was one of the more frequent ones.
Bizos was the one who could demand answers though. The policemen did nothing wrong? he asked. They acted in self-defence to protect themselves from an attack from Mr Biko? That is what your story is?
Snyman: That is correct. We had to restrain him.
Bizos: If your story is true, you and your colleagues did nothing wrong. Mr Biko caused his own death and you and your colleagues are blameless? Eventually, after much futile prodding, Bizos put it to the 69-year-old pensioner that he wouldnt answer the question because he could not answer it honestly.
The tedium of the long-winded cross- examination was relieved by the vigilant audience which provided some well-timed jeers, making sure the amnesty applicants were not in any doubt about opposition to their application, even though that will not count in the decision of the amnesty committee of the commission.
But perhaps the most enduring image of that first day of hearing is of the pitiful figure of Snyman, dizzy from the relentless questioning by Bizos, pleading with his lawyer, and eventually the amnesty committee that Ek is moeg [I am tired], that he is an old man who is suffering from a number of ailments, that he cannot go on.
What a reversal of fortune for the all- powerful police officer of the 1970s and the 1980s, to find himself begging for mercy from three black men making up the committee. He was shown mercy and the hearing was adjourned. A very different from the experience of Biko, and the Cradock Four Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlawuli who were killed and their remains burnt, and for which Snyman and five others will appear before the amnesty committee next month.